Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Jack Kirby turns 100! Black Rider 1957

On August 28th, Jack Kirby would have turned 100. I held off celebrating this on my blog because I didn't know what to post. Most of Jack's work is well known at this point and I didn't want to post something that is easily accessible to most. I thought about posting a few romance, horror or crime comics by Simon and Kirby from their Crestwood days, but most of those are easily accessible and fans know where to find them. It wasn't until earlier today when I was continuing my research on Atlas Comics from the 1950's that I came upon this one shot title, Black Rider from 1957, and it was chock full of Kirby work!

Cloaked behind a wonderful John Severin cover are 3 early Kirby drawn stories that I was completely unaware of. The art looks quite a bit like his Mainline work, which was a company that he and Joe Simon created in the mid-1950's before it was swallowed up by the comic book glut as well as the onslaught of the Kefauver hearings.

While I could go on about Kirby and how I discovered him as a young man in the 1980's and how discovering back issues of Omac #1 and Jimmy Olsen #141 starring Goody Rickles freaked me out in a beautiful way, I won't. Not right now. For now, enjoy this rarely seen title from 1957 and let's all celebrate Jack Kirby's would be 100th Birthday (+2 days)!